When the dust settled on WWE Crown Jewel 2025, the general consensus and review was that the company put on a fun and logical show that gave the fans what they wanted.
Airing live from Perth, Australia, more than 13,000 loud Australian fans packed the RAC Arena and at times made it feel like there were closer to 30 thousand fans in attendance. With international fans known for being much louder and more passionate than their American counterparts, the energy helped elevate the show further, especially during the match most of the fans came to see. With a sea of yellow shirts visible in the crowd, many made it clear that they bought their ticket to see John Cena wrestle one more time, and the 17-time World Champion certainly gave them a memorable performance in Australia.
WWE Crown Jewel 2025 Review: More Than The Championships
Following the now traditional video packages and shots of stars arriving into the venue, the show officially kicked off with the street fight between Bronson Reed and Roman Reigns. The match was one split into 2 halves, the first being Reigns having a more light-hearted approach and striking Reed with various Aussie sports items such as a cricket bat and rugby ball, but things got more serious when the interference spots occurred. Once again showing off his ridiculous speed, Bron Breakker intercepted a Reigns attack with a spear of his own to turn the momentum in favour of Reed. The Usos then arrived to give Reigns a man advantage, but it was ultimately Reigns’ downfall as Jey accidentally speared Reigns through a table, leading to Reed picking up a huge with over The OTC.
Family drama ensued after with Reigns berating The Usos and storming off as a dejected Jey and Jimmy watched on. Even though all 3 are now babyfaces, this felt like we were back in the early days of The Bloodline again, and Jey has quickly fallen down the card and does not feel like a credible contender for the World Title at this time.
Next came the first of 2 Crown Jewel Championship matches as Stephanie Vaquer faced Tiffany Stratton. With little interaction between both heading into the match and with nothing more than it being champion vs. champion, both women were given little to work with to make the fans invested. At just over 10 minutes, this was easily the shortest match on the card and felt like it needed a lot more. Here’s hoping there is a bigger rematch down the road.
Then came the match that everyone will be talking about for a long time! For the last time, John Cena and AJ Styles faced off inside the squared circle. With Cena only having a few matches left, and AJ also admitting his time in the ring is coming to an end, the fans wanted to see something special. Even before the bell, there was a sense that this would be something different as Cena gave ring announcer Alicia Taylor a note to introduce AJ Styles. With references to TNA and The Bullet Crowd, which still feels weird to write given WWE’s previous history of not acknowledging anything outside of the company, Styles was also given the star treatment, and rightly so.
Now, the match itself. If anyone else did a 27-minute match filled with finishers from the all-time greats and too many kickouts, it would probably get murdered by online fans and critics. However, this was something different. With a combined 50 years of experience between them, both Cena and Styles busted out the greatest hits in wrestling which included homages to The Miz, The Undertaker, Sting, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt and others. This was not a mockery, more like 2 of the biggest musicians covering the biggest songs in history in front of a loving crowd. Purists will probably hate it, but there is no denying this was a lot of fun, exactly what the fans wanted, and easily the best match of Cena’s final year. Both showed respect after, as Cena now has just 2 matches left.
Although it was nearly impossible to follow what just happened, WWE were smart by having Australia’s own Rhea Ripley in the next match, who felt energised as her theme music hit. Ripley and IYO SKY defeated Asuka and Kairi Sane in a match that saw Ripley on the apron for a long time before finally receiving the hot tag. This was a solid match and will likely be a precursor to WarGames next month, and was more than just a standard Raw tag match.
Then it was time for the main event as Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins faced off for the Men’s Crown Jewel Championship. Unlike the women’s match, both Rollins and Rhodes have history with one another, as Rollins has been unable to beat Rhodes in their last 3 meetings. While interference from The Vision was expected, ahead of the match Paul Heyman told Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed that The Visionary needed to go it alone. With Rollins unable to get out of the blocks in the early goings, things turned around later on with big moves including Rollins hitting a coast-to-coast and Rhodes hitting a top rope Cross Rhodes, neither of which got the job done. Instead of a new Vision member being revealed, Rollins utilised the watch previously given to him as a gift by Rhodes to strike the WWE Champion and deliver 2 stomps to finally beat his rival.
Rollins cut a promo after the match and stood tall to close out the show, which had no cliffhanger ending and simply ended with Rollins and Vaquer in the ring. With the show being solid from an in-ring standpoint, this was one time where the shock ending wasn’t needed.
WWE Crown Jewel 2025: Final Thoughts
A substantial improvement on Wrestlepalooza, Crown Jewel was a fun international show filled with fans that loved everything that was put in front of them. At just over 3 hours, and with a start time of 1 pm in the UK, Crown Jewel was a fun watch and will be remembered for the bonkers match between Cena and Styles and a great main event between Rhodes and Rollins. Given the obscene ticket prices, stating that this was value for money for the fans in attendance could be argued, but this is worth the time to watch all 5 matches, and one of the best b-shows of the year.
Featured image: WWE
